Festival includes Underground Railroad tour

STAFF REPORT

SALEM — As part of Salem’s Heritage Days festivities Sept. 20-21, the Quakertown Trolley will be used for tours of the city’s homes that were part of the Underground Railroad.

The tour times are 10 a.m., noon, 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. Sept. 20, and 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. Sept. 21.

Jeanne Martinelli, a docent of the Salem Historical Society’s Freedom Hall, will be dressed as a Salem Quaker. She will tell passengers stories from the mid-1800s of the plight of slaves, the workings of the Underground Railroad and the abolitionist movement that flourished in Salem before the Civil War.

Because the homes on the Underground Railroad tour are private residences, more than 100 slides will be shown on a screen inside the trolley. They will include pictures of the insides of the homes, the hiding places of the Underground Railroad and the abolitionists.

Each tour will last about one hour and will be followed by a question-and-answer period inside the museum’s meeting room.

The cost is $10 a person. Tickets are available by calling (330) 337-8514 or (330) 337-3035.